Thursday, July 22, 2010

Elaine English acts as a literary agent and offers a general legal practice that focuses specifically on media, entertainment and publishing law. As an agent, she looks for books that will appeal to women, including commercial fiction, including women's fiction, romances, mysteries and thrillers. For more on Elaine's tastes, see here. She defines women's fiction and romance broadly to include chick lit, erotica, and a full range of works from light contemporaries to dark historicals. She is drawn to good stories with strong, believable characters.

Naomi Hackenberg has assisted Elaine since September 2008, but is now building her own list of authors. Like all new agents, she really needs to find good books to represent. Naomi represents a range of young adult and adult fiction projects, but accepts unsolicited queries exclusively for YA and Middle Grade fiction. Her fiction tastes include any and all novels with strong writing, stand-out narrative voices and compelling characters.

Naomi's academic background is in Creative Writing and American Studies, and she holds a Bachelor's degree from The George Washington University and a Master's degree from The University of Chicago. Naomi is a member of the Society for Children's Book Writers and Illustrators and an associate member of the Association of Authors' Representatives.

Submissions: The agency prefers a 1 - 2 page, single-spaced, query letter giving an overview of what your story is about -- that means a brief summary of the main plot and characters. "We recommend that this summary be patterned after the back cover copy you might see on a published book. If you are previously published, a contest winner, or have other information specifically relevant to the work you are pitching, you may include that information in this letter. For prior publications, please give the name of the publisher and the date of publication. Do not include any attachments with your e-mail query."

Note: Brian Henry has a "How to Get Published" workshops coming up: in Waterloo on July 24 (see here), in Sarnia on August 22 (see here) and in Mississauga on December 4 (details to come).For information about all of Brian's writing workshops and creative writing courses, see here.

1 comment:

I have already published a YA novel, the first in a series of three. You can find out about it on my blog and website. I am looking for a publisher who will give me better terms for the other two books (book 2 is already written).

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Brian Henry has been a book editor, writer, and creative writing instructor for more than 25 years. He teaches creative writing at Ryerson University. He also leads weekly creative writing courses in Burlington, Mississauga, Oakville and Georgetown and conducts Saturday workshops throughout Ontario. His proudest boast is that he has helped many of his students get published.